Most business enterprises rely on communications tools such as telephone and email to communicate with their customers and partners. While the traditional telephone provides real-time interactive communications, it lacks support for rich media interactions compared to chat services such as MSN, Yahoo, and Skype (all trade-marks). It is also challenging for both the caller and the callee to multi-task while on a telephone call, or to extend and resume the dialogue after hanging up the call. On the other hand, it is easy to multi-task and to extend communications using email but email is generally not suited for real-time interactive communications.
Nowadays, many businesses use social media services such as Twitter and Facebook (all trade-marks) to communicate with their customers. However, such services are often very public such as tweeting at a business or commenting on a business's photo, and require the users to use their personal online profiles. These services are generally not designed for more private consumer-to-business interaction flows that are typical of telephony communication. It is also difficult for both the customers and the businesses to organize theirs communications around specific topics such as events or functions such as customer support.
Some businesses have started using mobile or enterprise chat services such as WeChat, Whatsapp, and Slack (all trade-marks). However, consumer-to-consumer chat services typically require the participating parties to be added to each other's contact addressbook or be invited into group conversations. These chat messaging services are generally not suited for extended groups or where the users do not have personal, work, or direct social relationships.